Plagues

Although it's not Passover, we have been beset by plagues.

A couple of weeks ago, on the eve of going down to Charleston, I noticed a splotch on my chest, just below my collarbone. I thought something bit me. I also had a couple of red dots on my shins, which I thought was a reaction to the sun, melanin-deprived person that I am. The splotch on my chest sequed in to a splotch with rings and different colors; someone remarked that it looked like a tick bite (from where????) and someone else remarked that it looked like.......ringworm.

So here we go with the pros and cons of the Internet: I was able to access images of ringworm, and shithook----that's what was on my chest. Oh great. And on top of that, I had some other rash on my legs and arms. Terrific.

Then Henry had some weird stuff on his face, and thanks to the Internet, I was pretty sure he had himself a case of ringworm. And this all meant that Chuck, the newest addition to our family, had brought ringworm with him from the shelter and given it to me and Henry. Oh shit.

I got an appointment to take Henry to the vet, and I knew this was not going to be easy: the last time I took him in, I thought I was going to have a stroke, carrying him over there. He weighs 22 pounds without the cat carrier. I work out. He's still heavy. Then I realized that Chuck really should get checked out, too, unless I wanted to make two trips to the vet.

So we came up with Pet Solutions:



It's Patent Pending so don't rip off the idea.

It got us to the vet. I was given lotion to smear on their faces twice a day, and shampoo that I'm supposed to bathe each of them twice a week with. The smearing part is easy. The shampoo part sucks.

And I still had this itchy rash on my arms and legs. The chest splotch was subsiding, but the extremeties were still extreme.

Back to the Internet. And I'm 100% sure that what I have isAtypical Pityriasis Rosea which presents with a "herald" patch, very often mistaken for ringworm (!!!), and a rash. There's nothing to be done. It clears up in 6-8 weeks. It seems to be easing up, at least on the legs. We're at two and a half weeks now. I think there's hope.

Meanwhile, Henry's face looks like crap and doesn't seem to be improving; I sometimes think it may be getting worse which means another trip to the vet using Pet Solutions to get there.

If it's not the Parenting Train, it's the Pet Train.